Don't come here if you don't like it, warns Blair

Ethnic minorities must integrate into British society or stay out of the country, Tony Blair said yesterday.

The Prime Minister issued a tough warning to Muslims and other faith groups that they must conform to British values of democracy and respect the country's heritage.

But he refused to give up celebrating multiculturalism - even though the policy has been widely blamed for fuelling divisions in UK cities.

The significant hardening of language was seen as an admission that the Government's policies have failed to root out extremists.

Mr Blair said: "The reason we are having this debate is not generalised extremism. It is a new and virulent form of ideology associated with a minority of our Muslim community. It is not a problem with Britons of Hindu, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese or Polish origin."

He added: "I always thought after 7/7 our first reaction would be very British: we stick together; but that our second reaction, in time, would also be very British: we're not going to be taken for a ride."

He launched a six-point plan to encourage different races and religions to integrate - including a crackdown on public funding for groups which failed to tackle extremism, tighter rules on forced marriages, and telling Muslims to adhere to British - not Islamic - law in the UK.

He pledged tougher measures to clamp down on preachers of hate, raised the prospect of twinning faith schools with those of other religions and set requirements on immigrants to speak English before gaining full citizenship.

In future, faith and racial groups that receive £13.8million of taxpayers' money - including £3.2 million for 96 Muslim bodies - will have to pass a test to prove they are promoting integration.

Mr Blair also entered the row over Muslim veils -saying it was "plain common sense" that teachers should have to remove them in the classroom. The Premier has repeatedly underlined his commitment to multiculturalism - which critics say has led to the Government failing to impose a single British culture.

Trevor Phillips, as head of the Commission for Racial Equality, and Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, have both expressed serious doubts about multiculturalism.

Mr Blair said he had been forced to look again at the concept of multicultural Britain in the wake of last year's London bombings. "Very good intentions got the better of us," he said in a lecture at Downing Street.

"We wanted to be hospitable to new groups. Money was too often freely awarded to groups that were tightly bonded around religious, racial or ethnic identities.

"In the future, we will assess bids from groups of any ethnicity or any religious denomination, also against a test, where appropriate, of promoting community cohesion and integration."

He added: "It is not that we need to dispense with multicultural Britain. On the contrary, we should continue celebrating it.

"But we need - in the face of the challenge to our values - to reassert also the duty to integrate, to stress what we hold in common."

He added: 'For the first time in a generation there is an unease, an anxiety, even at points a resentment, that our very openness, our willingness to welcome difference, our pride in being home to many cultures, is being used against us - abused, indeed, in order to harm us.

"We are a nation comfortable with the open world of today. But we protect this attitude by defending it. Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain Britain. So conform to it; or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed.

"If you come here lawfully, we welcome you. If you are permitted to stay here permanently, you become an equal member of our community and become one of us."

Shadow Attorney General Dominic Grieve said: "The speech constitutes a remarkable turnaround. Many of the problems in relation to the issues he addresses are at least in part the consequence of a philosophy of divisive multi-culturalism and political correctness that has been actively promoted by the Labour Party over many years."

UK Independence Party MEP Gerard Batten said: "It is hypocritical of the Prime Minister to say that 'integration is a duty' when it is his Government who has pushed, paid for and promoted the multicultural agenda which is already starting to cause problems in this country."

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "It was worrying to see the PM using emotive language such as Britain 'being taken for a ride'. That can only help reinforce a "them and us" attitude.'